psalm 133 1-3 it is good and it is pleasant when god's people live together in unity
how many of you want to live in a good and pleasant place i do it is good and pleasant
when god's people live in unity that's what i want to talk about just for a second today is
unity getting ourselves in a place of unity because that scripture goes on to
say that there is an anointing that flows when we're in unity a power that flows in our life
it goes down uh through us and through everything that we touch when we're in unity
at the end of that verse at the end of that chapter says this for where there is unity there
is a commanded blessing do you see the promise there's a promise when you have unity in your life
there is a commanded blessing where you have unity there's an anointing and i really feel like today
that in a world where we feel like we're anything but united that we need to realize we can be
in unity and the best efforts to put our unity is in our families listen when you start
with your family that blessing not only flows down through you through your children through your
family but it flows and follows you everywhere you go that commanded blessing will follow you
to your workplace that commanded blessing will follow you into any difficult situation
because god says where there is unity there is a commanded blessing and when god commands a
blessing there's nothing that can stop it it may look impossible it may be difficult but you've
got to remind yourself when i am in unity and at peace then i walk in the commanded blessing
you know the enemy wants to separate us the enemy of our soul wants to bring division in our life
he doesn't want to bring us together he wants to bring us apart he wants to put a wedge of strife
a wedge of discontentment so that wedge can grow bigger and bigger until we have no unity but god
is saying when you're united you're strong you ever heard that saying united you're strong
divided you fall and that there's so much truth in that saying that when we are united we are strong
god has commanded a blessing where there's unity joel and i've been married 29 years
we've been together 29 years we've raised two children together now they're in college
we've built two houses together we've built a business together over this past 29 years
and now we're leading one of the greatest churches in the nation together together
and when i look back i can see that it's not because we're so smart it's not because we're so
privileged it's because we've stayed in unity now does that mean we agree on everything i personally
don't think it's possible in our human nature to agree with everyone all the time so i'm not
saying that's where the unity came where the unity comes is through a bond of peace listen to what it
says in ephesians 4 it says make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of
peace do you want the commanded blessing keep the unity through the spirit how do you do that
through the bond of peace peace doesn't hold grudges peace is willing to be wrong
peace doesn't have to be right all the time peace isn't bitter peace doesn't have to have its way
peace is a place of power the bible talks about god's presence reigning in peace if you want the
power of god and the commanded blessing of god stay in unity through the bond of peace
listen you may not see eye to eye with everyone in your life
does it make one person right and one person wrong that's what we must understand
it makes us different it makes us different people with different opinions
but that doesn't have to fragment us that does not have to cause us to be bitter towards one another
we can keep the bond of peace that's what the common there's where we find the common ground
can i tell you that peace is a beautiful thing that's what the scripture says that it's pleasing
and it's pleasant and good when you dwell together in unity
i just believe that our families will go completely different levels and be so effective
on this earth when we decide we're going to have peace in our homes we're going to come
together under the common bond of unity who gives us that peace the holy spirit you see you've got
to be in relationship with god before you can ever be in relationship at peace with anyone else
peace trusts peace believes the best peace knows that there is a better way do you know god can do
more in us and through us when we're at peace than when we're at odds see too often we fight
against each other when we should be fighting for each other how do we fight for each other
we fight for peace in our home we understand that we can do more together than we can apart
is it so important to have our own way all the time see there is a blessing attached
to unity and can i suggest this when we're tempted to say what we shouldn't
say when we're tempted to be right all the time can we think about this if we say it
and if we do it we may very well miss out on a blessing we may very well forfeit our blessing
because we want to feed our flesh because we want to get some temporary gratification
we want to show each other who's right you know i believe when we begin to put things
into perspective and we begin to realize hey listen we are the solution we are not the problem
because we serve a great big god that's when we can walk in peace and unity in our homes
god's kingdom is built on joy peace and righteousness let's build our homes
on peace let's let god establish our homes we don't want to build
vain homes we want to build strong foundations we want to be people who are quick to listen slow
to speak and slow to get angry that's what the scripture says god is quick to listen so to split
and slow to get angry with us we need to have those attributes in our life you know people can
teach us something sometimes it doesn't feel like it but they really can i think about my
children you know i love to listen to my children i love to listen to their ideas
i have been on this earth longer than they have i don't always agree with every idea that they have
but you know what's important to me a willingness to learn from them
a willingness to show my respect a willingness to grow with them and to keep peace i don't
want to fix them all the time i don't want to reprimand them all the time i want to learn
the way to keep peace to keep unity to keep strife out of our home you know joel and i don't
see eye to eye all the time the truth is we agree on more than we disagree on but it's
those small foxes you know those small things that can make big things if you're not careful
and ruin everything it's the small foxes who spoil the vine so we don't always see eye to eye
and when we don't i listen to his perspective he's a very smart man i want to hear what he has to say
i want to know what he's thinking and if i still can't get to that place in my own mind guess what
i do i keep my mouth shut i zip it up for peace we need to learn to zip it up for the sake of peace
i know it's only a matter of time before he comes to my side
there's a bond in the spirit of peace listen we can stay bonded in the spirit
by keeping peace let's learn to listen to one another let's learn to grow with one another
let's learn to communicate when we have good communications with our family we know what
they're thinking we know what they're doing we all know what's expected of each other that's
how we grow in this place of peace learn to laugh together not only work together but
laugh together laughter is like a medicine unity is worth fighting for hold your peace
don't give it up pursue it chase it down because that's where the commanded blessing is amen amen
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